Star Wars - Edge of the Empire

1. The Jewel of Chandrila

Shadow Port Blues

14

JUN/15

Star Wars: Edge of the Empire
The Jewel of Chandrila

Its origin and history shrouded in legend, THEJEWEL OF CHANDRILA is one of the largest and most beautiful corusea gems in the galaxy. By luck or by fate, a group of enterprising individuals have the chance of a lifetime to steal the precious stone from its current owner in the idyllic CLOUDCITY.

Their contact, a canny Pantoran by the name of ARISSHEN has arranged a meeting at a bar in the shadowy Port Town in the center of the massive floating metropolis, but she is not alone nor are past debts and sins far behind…

The assortment of spacers have gathered at the rowdy and ruckus establishment The 4 1/2. Gunsha Murglak sits in a corner booth attempting to tap into the local infonet. Kraus Gilb and Guffy Gar’gar gather at a table taking in their surroundings. Aanchi is at the bar listening to the drunken locals and Xagrab movies to each empty spot picking off the leavings from beneath the tables.

A plethora of drunken species shout in uncountable languages over the wailing Jatz band. All manner of illicit activity openly occurs in the seedy dive which distracts most from seeing the bar’s latest patron arrive.

A Pantoran female, slim and attractive, slips nimbly into crowd – scanning the bar and then walking a circuit passing each of the spacers. As she does she presses a button on her wrist comm as she nears. The datapads they were given as their initial contact and instructed to bring light up with a new message.

“Have a tail. 6 goons in black leather and goggles just behind me. Have to loose first. Help if you can. NO KILLING. Meet around side at droid access hatch. – Aris -”

The spacers attempt to get a look at goons but only Kraus notices the pack of thugs. Two Rodian, Two Humans, a Trandoshan and Lutrellian stand around toward the entrance. Guffy moves to the bar to get a better look when a Twi’lek bounty hunter moves into his spot, blaster drawn on Kraus. “Koona t’chuta, Gilb?” he says in Huttese. Kraus manages to keep his cool and convince him he’s working on something bigger then the Black Sun debt he owes pointing out the crowd of goons following Aris. The Twi’lek is skeptical but leaves Kraus to speak to the group who have now moved a little further into the bar looking for Aris.

Guffy moves back to the table and asks, “Wha’d the tailhead want?”. Kraus keeps his big red eyes on the Twi’lek and thugs, only responding with “Get ready to get out of here”. Within moments the goons have surrounded the Twi’lek bounty hunter and an argument erupts. Aris makes eye contact with Aanchi and gives a flick of her head toward the entrance, moving from the darkened booth out the door. Aanchi, Guffy, and Kraus follow soon after. A last message from Aris to Xagrab and Gunsha reads, “You coming?”. As Gunsha walks out, head buried in his datapad probing the infonet’s vulnerabilities, blaster fire can be heard inside the bar behind him.

Crowded in the droid access lift, Aris muses over the access hatches, air ducts, and garbage shoots being the most undetected way to move through Cloud City. She thanks the group for coming and the distraction from her husband’s protectors and tells them they are on the way to meet her father on the 50th level.

Aris opens the door to an apartment, handing the keycard to Gunsha as they enter. Inside they see a middle aged Pantoran male dressed in fine robes of deep maroon and blues which play well on his skin. He stands “Welcome. I’m so glad we could all make it. Aris, darling, be a dear and make our guest some drinks. I am Arend Shen tax administrator here in Cloud City and through my various contacts I’ve learned of each of you and your certain skill sets, as well as your …obligations… which would make you more…responsive to my employment opportunity. Now what I have to propose is confidential, illegal, and potentially quite dangerous, BUT if successful could pay out in the hundreds of thousands, maybe more. In addition, I can help most of you with your problems, at least locally. Do I have everyone’s attention?”

Everyone grunts approval and Arend continues. “I thought so. Now in a few days time an auction is to occur at the Figg and Associates museum at a gala concluding the annual Cloud City Grand Prix. The object of interest is a gem known as the jewel of Chandrila. Its a cut corusca gem with a reputation of being unstealable. Presumably because those that own it spend its worth protecting it, but fortunately for us the museum is not designed to protect something so valuable, giving us our best chance to nab it… but I don’t want to steal it once, oh no, I plan on stealing it twice.” He lingers taking in their perplexed looks and grins. “To do this we first will have to infiltrate the gala, using the information we gather on the bidders we manipulate them into going as high as they could possible go, then divert the credits into our account, and before the transaction clears the bank actually steal the jewel and sell it to an underworld contact. …You have questions, I imagine.”

Guffy growls, “Sell to who? Sell to Hutts? I don’t deal with no Hutts” Arend frowns momentary before putting on another smile, “We will gladly take a Hutts money if it means we are richer and they are poorer and left with a bobble of no value to us.”

Kruas pipes in, “What’s the cut?”. “Equal shares among the seven of us including Aris. 14.285% to be exact, with the remaining .005% being used to buy us a bottle or two of something nice to celebrate with. Even this meager percentile should be in the thousands if all goes to plan” , Arend responds. Other questions come from each of the spacers in turn.

Who are these bidders? “Seven have registered. I haven’t gathered more then their names and pictures. Shreya Ordassa, Pos Podura, Mil Mikkir, Kaltho the Hutt, Zekra Fol, a woman simply named Elaiza, and Aris’ husband Vorse Tabarith.”

How do we get into this gala? “The most straight forward way (and least conspicuous given your backgrounds) to obtain an invitation will be to enter the Cloud City Grand Prix. Winning will not be easy, the 30k credit prize is a big draw on a lot of pilots, but simply placing while putting on a good show should be enough. I have a Cloud Car you may borrow for the race and will front the entry fee.”

What of the account we divert the winning bid to? “I’ve set up a dummy account untraceable to any of us. The relevant routing and account numbers are on a datapad there on the table”

How do we pull off this heist? “I leave it to you to develop your plan. You’ll need to do some reconnaissance to get around security. The less I know the better.”

Where do we go when we’re done? “I’ll have a get away speeder waiting nearby you’ll bring to my yacht which I’ll have primed for our escape to a nearby system. There we’ll divide the funds, celebrate, and go where we will”

“Now let us enjoy our drinks, get to know one another. Gunsha, I first heard of you when a notice came though my office of someone owing 30K credits in back taxes from gambling winnings… that must be an error, 3K is much more realistic number to owe” Gunsha catches on and agrees, “Must have been an error, thank you for catching it, your eminence.”

Arend continues on, “And Aanchi, we’ve moved in similar circles for a little while now. I’m saddened to learn of your family, but perhaps it will please you to learn the current owner of the jewel is an Imperial.

Ten years ago I came to know him while working at a bank in the core. Investments when south and rather then paying his debts, this man Marus Grayson – an Imperial Trade and Commerce Commissioner, used his connections to draw up treason charges against the bank. The assets were frozen and despite never coming to trial I was ruined. I’ve worked here in Cloud City since then. The new Baron Administrator Calrissian is hell bent on cleaning up corruption here in the city. I knew it was time to take my leave when I came to learn of Marus Grayson’s auction. We needed worry of the Empire coming after us though, recently coruca gems were outlawed, which is why Grayson has set up the auction here outside the Empire’s gaze."

More stories are swapped. Of Kraus Gilb’s selling of a Black Sun ship for credits to buy booster blue. Of Guffy’s betrayal to the Hutt he was a slave to. And of Xagrab’s most recent employment by the Hutts before he wandered off.

A silver protocol droid dressed in robes similar to Arend’s, lets itself into the apartment. “I have matters to attend to, but you’re welcome to use this place as a base of operations. It’s fairly well located in the city. Aris will be available to aid you and should you need to speak to me, act as liaison. Good luck.” With that he leaves and Aris emerges from a rear bedroom now changed into a fine gown.

She addresses the group. “The datapads we’ve assigned to you are all biometrically locked to you and send encrypted messages to one another. Try to avoid comms, use codes if you do. Obviously the datapads are linked to the local infonet though not the Imperial channels. And they feature a holorecorder which should come in handy for recon and investigation.”

“If your investigations of the bidders bring you to my husbands casino, message me. We must not be seen together or have any hint we know one another.” You’re pulling one over on your husband to, huh? “My father arranged the marriage when we arrived. Vorse used to be big time, but now is just jealous and paranoid. His power is slipping and I want to make my own way. Getting him to sign on to the auction was too easy, kinda pathetic really. He’ll do anything to keep up appearances. I’ll be manipulating him at the gala.”

Gunsha moves to the computer to start gathering information. He probes the banks connection to the infonet and discerns he’ll need a sample of encryption they use, most likely from a droid at the bank. He also learns of Lobot, head of Cloud City security. Later he slips away to a nearby info terminal to get schematics of the museum then brings them back to show off to the group.

Xagrab wanders off to the museum as the group attempts to decipher them. Not far behind Aanchi joins him. There they make note of the security’s patrol route. Aanchi sees the camera placement and learns of extra security the night of the gala , and Xagrab makes note of the garbage shoot in a janitorial closet near where the jewel is kept. Anachi also learns the most expensive artifacts are in the Reflections of Xim exhibit, and begins to form a plan of diversion.

Guffy and Kraus go off to score some booster blue and find out about the race.

Comments

In the next 2 days:
- Obtain blast and ion weapons
- Set up computer spike and find a way around the government firewalls to steal the winning bid
- Investigate security at the museum
- Investigate the bidders to find a way to manipulate their bids and raise the price as high as possible
- Investigate / keep tab on Marus Grayson’s and his crew
- Enter Grad Prix, find a copilot, and sup up Cloud Car for race